New to Aquariums! Is my planned tropical tank good + tips and tricks (Angelfish, Gourami)

[jomix]

Hello,

I am completely new to aquariums but I really want to get into it and I have done as much research as I possibly can (while I saved up for it). I have researched cleaning, feeding, aquarium set up and which fish get along with which and I think I have decided what tank I wanted to get and which fish I wanted to keep. In the relatively tall 64 Litre tank I will keep:

3x Angelfish
5x Gourami
2x Zebra Nerite Snails

(I chose these fish as I have been told they are easy to look after and they are very colourful and interesting).


I tried to compromise as much as possible. I was thinking about tetras but I didn’t want to squeeze too many into the tank. With the 64L tank and these fish, do you guys think they will have adequate room? The tank will have 2-3mm plain gravel and mostly plastic plants (with the exception of a couple of moss balls) and a few ornaments. The tank will of course have a good filter and a good tropical heater. I plan to clean the tank once a week with a gravel cleaner, brush and do a 20% water change. I am hoping that the snails will help clean the tank as well

.

I think that kinda sums everything up, all I am asking really is if any of you pros have any tips, tricks or whether I should reduce the number of fish? (Although I really want to have an as vibrant tank as possible). Or if anyone has any tips on cleaning tropical tanks or feeding the fish that would also be great. Thanks for reading!

-Joe

 

[JuiceBox52]

I'm afraid this tank is too small for angelfish. What type of gourami were you thinking?

 

[jomix]

I'm afraid this tank is too small for angelfish. What type of gourami were you thinking?

Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami, if I was to buy the Angelfish young (when they are only 4cm across) and then move them to a larger tank in the future when they get older, would that work?

 

[Retired Viking]

Angelfish need a shoal of 5 or more or a bonded pair male and female. I had a bonded pair for several year in my 55 gallon tank. One grew to 6 inch the other almost 5 inch (body)

 

[jomix]

Angelfish need a shoal of 5 or more or a bonded pair male and female. I had a bonded pair for several year in my 55 gallon tank. One grew to 6 inch the other almost 5 inch (body)

ahh I see, so I would be better off reducing it to 2 angelfish? Male and female?

 

[JuiceBox52]

ahh I see, so I would be better off reducing it to 2 angelfish? Male and female?

The tank is still too small for even a pair I'm afraid, and they need to be in a group to choose their mates. You could rehome them when they get bigger but having too small a tank, even when young, will cause issues

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Yep, too small for angels. Even one will outgrow it pretty quickly. Most gouramis would be too big too. You could have a nice little group of sparkling gouramis, but they need planted tanks and aren't really a beginner fish. Remember rule #1 for stocking: small tank=small fish.

I like your secondary idea of tetras. Depending on your water chemistry, you could have a nice school of neons, black neons, or lemons (a few of my favorites). Do you know how hard your water is?

 

[Crispii]

Depending on the dimension of your aquarium, you could have a small group of Trichogaster chuna (honey gourami).

 

[Retired Viking]

For tetra you need a shoal of at least 6 and the more the better. I have a 55 gallon tetra tank which gives them plenty of room to swim, 64 liter is around 15 gallons which does not give a lot of room depending on if it is a long or tall tank. Also tetra are soft water fish. I use RO water to soften my water. I keep my hard water fish in separate hard water tanks. If you have hard water fancy guppies may work out. Do you know what type of water you have? soft or hard and the GH and PH levels?

 

[Essjay]

With a location of Kent, I suspect hard water.

@jomix Could you look on your water company's website for your hardness, please. We need a number and the unit of measurement rather than words.
If you can find your hardness, post it on here. UK water companies tend to use different units from fish keeping so we may need to convert it.


Soft water fish have evolved in water with little calcium in it. If we put them in hard water with a lot of calcium, their bodies get calcium deposits particularly in their kidneys, and they don't live as long as they should. Hard water fish have evolved ways to remove the excess calcium from their bodies; put them in soft water and they still get rid of calcium then suffer from the lack of it and they get sick more easily.
This is why we should keep fish that come from water with the same hardness as our tap water, or alter our tap water like Retired Viking does for his soft water fish.

 

[dmpfishlover]

Everyone has already given you the advice that I would have given...... So, I will just Welcome you to the Forum!!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

As some have already said, that tank is to small for a group of angle fish.

Or if anyone has any tips on cleaning tropical tanks or feeding the fish that would also be great. Thanks for reading!

I clean my tanks every week. I scrub the glass with a sponge. I also clean the filter (completely take it apart) every month.

I also do a 40% water change every week. (Along with a substrate vacuum)

As for feeding goes, what do you need help on? I feed my fish (neon tetras) one pinch of Omega One Tropical Flakes per day. (5 days a week.) I then fast them for the remaining two days.

I feed my betta 4 pellets per day. (5 days a week, as I said above)^

 

[jomix]

With a location of Kent, I suspect hard water.

@jomix Could you look on your water company's website for your hardness, please. We need a number and the unit of measurement rather than words.
If you can find your hardness, post it on here. UK water companies tend to use different units from fish keeping so we may need to convert it.


Soft water fish have evolved in water with little calcium in it. If we put them in hard water with a lot of calcium, their bodies get calcium deposits particularly in their kidneys, and they don't live as long as they should. Hard water fish have evolved ways to remove the excess calcium from their bodies; put them in soft water and they still get rid of calcium then suffer from the lack of it and they get sick more easily.
This is why we should keep fish that come from water with the same hardness as our tap water, or alter our tap water like Retired Viking does for his soft water fish.

Sorry for the long reply everyone, always working these days.

My water is hard at 104 Ca mg/L. But I could buy something that could make the water softer perhaps? I have some Tetra AquaSafe already that a friend gave me and it apparently reduces chlorine.

As for the fish I was contacted by a friend who wanted to give me he’s fish (I announced my intentions to start an aquarium on facebook). He said that he’s only had them for about a month but must be rid of them as he and he’s girlfriend has had one too many arguments about them.

The fish are as follows:

6x White Cloud Mountain Minnows
6x Black Widow Tetra
6x Male Guppies
4x Platy
2x Congo Tetra

Now he claims he kept all of these in a 12 Gallon (54L) tank with no problems so far but I thought that it was a bit too many... should he be squeezing all of that in a tank of that size and would my tank (64L) still be too small for all of this? Should I maybe say I can keep some these but he should seek some kind of help for the others? They all seem to be smaller fish but what do you guys think?

 

[jomix]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

As some have already said, that tank is to small for a group of angle fish.



I clean my tanks every week. I scrub the glass with a sponge. I also clean the filter (completely take it apart) every month.

I also do a 40% water change every week. (Along with a substrate vacuum)

As for feeding goes, what do you need help on? I feed my fish (neon tetras) one pinch of Omega One Tropical Flakes per day. (5 days a week.) I then fast them for the remaining two days.

I feed my betta 4 pellets per day. (5 days a week, as I said above)^

Thanks for the tips! The feeding part was because I haven’t actually found any exact info as a lot of people say to just estimate it yourself and see how much food you fish eat in 30 seconds and if they are not eating very quick then they are not hungry supposedly but your feeding technique sounds very good

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Thanks for the tips! The feeding part was because I haven’t actually found any exact info as a lot of people say to just estimate it yourself and see how much food you fish eat in 30 seconds and if they are not eating very quick then they are not hungry supposedly but your feeding technique sounds very good

I don’t really believe in the whole “let them eat whatever they can in 30 seconds”, because they often overeat.

That’s just my opinion though.